Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 631 Advice
The addition of a new government office is equivalent to the addition of a vice minister's position.

Countless eyes are watching this position, but the cabinet hasn't given a single word.

In fact, the cabinet held three closed-door meetings and finally selected five candidates, which were then presented to the emperor. Unexpectedly, the emperor simply ignored them and gave no feedback.

No one knew what the emperor was thinking. Lin Ruhai, who held a firm grip on the Ministry of Personnel, had some clues about the emperor's intentions, but dared not make a judgment.

So Lin Ruhai sent someone to tell Jia Lian that he should come to the Lin family for dinner that evening.

Jia Lian replied verbally, "Tell Prime Minister Lin that since His Majesty ascended the throne, no one has been promoted to a high position."

The messenger returned to the cabinet and relayed the message. Lin Ruhai was stunned for a moment, raised his hand as if to slap himself but didn't, and finally shook his head with a bitter smile.

No wonder Jia Lian didn't care at all about the extra position of vice minister. People are indeed easily blinded by self-interest.

Jia Lian remained silent not because the position of Vice Minister was unappealing, but because it was too prestigious. Rather than competing for that, he preferred to secure several positions at the level of Gentleman of the Palace or Assistant Gentleman of the Palace.

Two days later, a new name was added to Li Yuan's reply: Peng Shensi. Peng was an official transferred back from Southeast Asia, where he had served as Li Yuan's deputy. At the same time, four other officials who had returned with him joined Li Yuan's secretariat to assist him in liaising with the cabinet and handling state affairs.

The head of this secretariat is Hu Min. With the establishment of the secretariat, many things that the cabinet could previously decide on its own now need to be handled by the secretariat. If the secretariat believes that the cabinet has handled things inappropriately, it will attach its opinions and forward them to the emperor.

The cabinet approved Peng Shensi's appointment almost immediately. He had served as a provincial judge when he was exiled.

Normally, officials who have been exiled for causing problems should not have a chance to make a comeback, but this person did.

It doesn't matter if you have any problems as a person, as long as you're not charged with treason, you can still turn things around when the opportunity arises.

Upon hearing the news, Jia Lian immediately went to the palace to request an audience. Li Yuan was surprised by Jia Lian's rare initiative to request an audience and immediately summoned him.

"Is Your Majesty encouraging your ministers to be corrupt?" After the usual greetings, Jia Lian's words sent a chill down Li Yuangan's spine, causing the veins on his neck to throb violently.

Enraged, Li Yuan stood up abruptly and glared at Jia Lian, only to be met with a calm and fearless look.

Hu Min was so frightened that she trembled slightly, but dared not make a sound.

"Insolence!" Li Yuan slowly uttered two words. Jia Lian unhurriedly removed his official hat, held it in his hands, and said, "If Your Majesty cannot accept advice, please dismiss Jia Lian!"

Hearing Jia Lianping's calm and firm words, Li Yuan was at a loss for what to do, and even felt a little flustered.

"Tell me, why can't I use trusted people?" Li Yuan asked through gritted teeth, barely suppressing his anger.

Jia Lian said calmly, "Your Majesty must prevent Your Majesty from making a mistake before Your Majesty approves Peng Shensi's appointment. If my words have been offensive, please forgive me."

Li Yuan, still furious, roared, "Answer me!"

Jia Lian said, “Your Majesty is carrying on the legacy of the late Emperor and has the ambition to build on the past and usher in the future. Peng Shensi was a notorious corrupt official who was exiled to Southeast Asia during the late Emperor's reign. Your Majesty can simply pardon him, so why appoint him to a high position? Isn't this encouraging corruption? The Secretariat is the link between Your Majesty and the Cabinet. Why doesn't Your Majesty select people from among the young and promising newcomers, but instead appoints a few slick, long-serving officials?”

Li Yuan angrily said, "These five men served me diligently and made great contributions during their time in Southeast Asia. How can I not reward them for their service?"

Jia Lian said solemnly, "These people were exiled for their crimes in the past. Your Majesty gave them a chance to redeem themselves. Shouldn't they do their best? Your Majesty's pardon is enough. Why talk about rewarding them for their crimes?"

Faced with Jia Lian's unyielding stance, Li Yuan was indeed furious, but he had to admit that Jia Lian was right. Now, because of the issue of saving face, he was finding himself in an awkward position.

"The cabinet doesn't object, the Ministry of Personnel doesn't object, so who gave you the right to object?" Li Yuan's anger subsided somewhat, and his words softened.

Jia Lian continued his relentless attack: "If Your Majesty promotes officials from the court, I will not utter a single word of objection. If Your Majesty wishes to use convicted officials, you should first prove their innocence and exonerate them."

Li Yuan looked at Jia Lian, who remained expressionless, slowly sat down, and waved his hand, saying, "You may step down now, so that I may consider this carefully."

Jia Lian put on his hat, bowed, and took his leave, not pressing the matter any further. Hu Min breathed a sigh of relief, fearing that Jia Lian would refuse to give the emperor a way out and insist on making him admit his mistake.

After watching Jia Lian walk away, Hu Min whispered to the two eunuchs in the hall, "Watch your mouth if you don't want to die!"

The two eunuchs knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly to Hu Min, thanking him for saving their lives.

After the eunuch withdrew, Li Yuan, still seething with anger, kicked Hu Min and roared, "You bastard, am I a tyrannical ruler?"

Hu Min staggered from the kick, but after regaining his balance, he said in a low voice, "The Sage is a benevolent ruler, but rules are rules. If word gets out about the Sage's actions, this servant deserves to die."

Li Yuan didn't speak again. His personality had always been gentle and kind. He had indeed changed a little after ascending the throne, but not much.

His anger today stemmed from the fact that he thought he had done something brilliant, only to have it rejected by Jia Lian.

After calming down, Li Yuan gradually understood Jia Lian's logic. Jia Lian didn't object to the emperor pardoning several ministers who had worked diligently in Southeast Asia, nor did he object to the emperor promoting his cronies. His only objection was to the emperor promoting ministers who had been exiled after committing crimes during his father's reign. Considering Li Yuan's consistent insistence on upholding the late emperor's will, this seemed truly inappropriate.

Upon further reflection, I realized how wicked these people in the cabinet could be!

The more Li Yuan thought about it, the more cold sweat broke out on his back; he almost made a mistake and embarrassed himself.

If the cabinet members are already deploying their cronies, and once the new appointments are approved by the emperor, they launch an overwhelming wave of opposition, then how should the emperor handle the situation?

To put it bluntly, the little prestige that has just been established will probably be seized upon by the ministers for "promoting and appointing criminals from the previous emperor's time" and they will report it to the death.
If these civil officials then adopt a posture of remonstrating to the death, and the appointment is made, the die is cast. If Li Yuan backs down again, he will truly lose face.

Enraged, Li Yuan grabbed the appointment document in front of him, tore it into pieces in a few strokes, rolled it up, threw it on the ground, got up and paced around the hall, getting angrier the more he thought about it.

"Hu Min, pick it up and burn it!" Li Yuan was tired, so he went back to sit down and gave the order in a low voice.

The emperor's power was indeed limitless, but that was only in legal terms. His subjects had plenty of ways to deal with him.

For the first time since ascending the throne, Li Yuan felt a sense of crisis!
Yes, the civil service group led by the cabinet was indeed unable to remove Li Yuan from the throne, but once they achieved their goal of undermining imperial power, they could engage in a power struggle with the emperor on many political matters.

Once an emperor gets caught in this tug-of-war, it's like jumping into a quagmire, his hands and feet tied. The most typical example is the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who fell into this trap, lowering himself to contend with the civil officials, only to lose and simply give up. Another example is the Tianqi Emperor, whose solution was to send Wei Zhongxian to eliminate the Donglin Party. Both were foolish strategies. As emperor, he naturally held a superior position; why would he personally engage in such a struggle?

The best approach would be to leave the cabinet nominations unchanged in the first place, subtly expressing dissatisfaction. If dissatisfaction persists after another nomination, then leaving them unchanged is entirely acceptable.

"I was so foolish!" Li Yuan finally realized his mistake, shook his head, and sighed.

Now, thinking back to Jia Lian's actions in entering the palace and trying to stop the emperor from issuing the appointment before he could make the final approval, he felt even more guilty.

"Sir, you are thinking of me, yet I treat you this way; it is truly inappropriate."

From Jia Lian's perspective, this kind of thing must be stopped, no matter who is on the emperor's throne.

If we can't stop them, then we need to calculate the cost of rebellion.

The lower-level gentry are difficult to deal with, so the only way is to engage in industry. However, corrupt officials in the imperial court can be reinstated to high positions. Since this is something that cannot be stopped, it would be better to just rebel.

The cabinet wasn't as malicious as Li Yuan thought. They didn't want to cause trouble for themselves by not intervening. After all, once the appointments were approved, even if ministers submitted memorials to remonstrate, the trouble would be the emperor's.

As for why the cabinet didn't object, there's an explanation: the cabinet provided a list, but the emperor didn't approve it. It should be noted that appointments of officials of the third rank and above required imperial approval. As for the secretariat's affairs, the emperor had several secretaries; how could the cabinet possibly have the authority to interfere?
In any case, it is not a bad thing for the cabinet to put the emperor under pressure from the resistance of the officials.

Just as the cabinet was waiting for the emperor's approval of the appointment documents, Hu Min brought an imperial edict, without giving any reason, simply telling Lin Ruhai that the cabinet should make further recommendations for the vice minister of the new department.

Lin Ruhai was somewhat bewildered; how had things changed again? After sending someone to inquire about the matter and learning that Jia Lian had entered the palace, Lin Ruhai roughly understood.

There was no other way; the emperor's will had to be carried out, even if it was a fake one.

So they convened a closed-door meeting with the cabinet ministers to revisit the candidates for the new department vice ministers. The previous candidates were to be discarded, and other candidates would be recommended instead.

The cabinet ministers were also a little puzzled. Why had they changed their minds again? Unfortunately, they couldn't get any information now, so they could only continue discussing the issue.

While they were discussing this, Hu Min went to the Ministry of Personnel and directly conveyed the Emperor's decree: the Secretariat should not be left vacant for long, and the Ministry of Personnel should examine and recommend some suitable officials with clean records for selection.

This imperial edict caused quite a stir in the Ministry of Personnel. After all, everyone had heard that the emperor had already nominated the candidate, so why was it being transferred to the Ministry of Personnel?
The Minister of Personnel could only instruct his subordinates to prepare suitable candidates, while he himself went to the Grand Secretariat to inquire about the situation with Lin Ruhai.

Lin Ruhai had just finished the meeting and selected three officials who had not been recommended before, and had them presented to the emperor.

In response to the Minister of Rites' report, Lin Ruhai stated simply, "Since His Majesty has issued an order, just carry it out. Why ask so many questions?"

The Minister of Personnel thought he had misheard these words, but he did not refute them and took his leave.

The Ministry of Personnel also recommended a list of seven or eight candidates, which was sent to the Cabinet. Lin Ruhai reviewed it directly and then presented it to the Emperor.

This matter still caused quite a bit of discussion. Before the end of the workday, the news spread, and everyone knew that after Jia Lian entered the palace, the previously confirmed information had been reversed.

The officials were undoubtedly left with a deep impression; Jia Lian had a great influence on the emperor.

As for those ministers who were eager to use this opportunity to gain a good reputation, they couldn't help but feel regretful upon hearing the news, having missed a chance to make a name for themselves.

It's all Jia Lian's fault!
The normal situation in all dynasties was actually quite similar: the struggle between the power of the emperor and the power of the ministers always existed in different ways.

Jia Lian also received the news and was very pleased that Li Yuan had changed his mind in time, so he no longer had to worry about the risky matter of rebellion.

Humans are inherently lazy, and Jia Lian was no exception; he was just an ordinary mortal.

Jia Lian would never take risks if he could avoid them. Besides, the Great Zhou Dynasty was currently in a relatively good state, generally enjoying peace and prosperity.

While life is difficult for ordinary people, it is not to the point of being utterly miserable.

During Emperor Chenghui's reign, he did a lot of work on improving people's livelihoods and made some efforts in improving governance, so the public's resentment was not actually that great.

Before the new department was even settled, Jia Lian embarked on his journey of running a school.

First, the Beijing Engineering College is required to, based on the wishes of each province, compile a list of regions that need to establish engineering colleges, whether government-run or privately-run. Second, the railway bureau is required to first establish a railway school in Beijing as a national standard, and then promote it nationwide.

Given the current situation, there is a great need for skilled personnel in the railway sector, and the pace of railway construction is not fast, but rather slow.

The railway bureau had no shortage of funds, so they acted quickly. After selecting the location, they immediately began constructing the campus and preparing the teaching staff.

Jia Lian specifically mentioned the principal's rank, referring to the Taizu Emperor, who stated that the principal of the Beijing Railway School would at least receive the待遇 (treatment/benefits) of a fifth-rank official. This demonstrates that Jia Lian was determined to advocate for better treatment for everyone.

Graduates cannot become officials; they can only be assigned to work on the railway. The school's management and education teams will definitely be selected from existing officials.

The selection of the new minister was ultimately based on recommendations from the cabinet, with the emperor choosing one to serve as a vice minister. As for the officials who had been pardoned and returned from Southeast Asia, Li Yuan issued an edict granting them honorary titles without appointing any substantive ones. These pardoned officials, though disappointed, did not harbor much resentment; after all, being able to return was already a relief, much better than being left to fend for themselves by mosquitoes in Southeast Asia.

Li Yuan then sent Hu Min to personally visit and inquire whether the children intended to retire to their hometowns or remain as officials at the grassroots level. If they chose the latter, he suggested that Hu Min could assist them in the selection process at the Ministry of Personnel.

In short, the path has been drawn; one can serve as an official at the grassroots level, but it's impossible to enter the emperor's inner circle.

This matter caused quite a stir among the officials in the capital, with the focus of their discussions still being the emperor's attitude towards the officials who had committed crimes during the reign of the late emperor.

This has become a benchmark case: ministers convicted of corruption can be pardoned, but not exonerated.

These ministers have returned, and their whole families have returned, but if they want to continue serving as officials, they can only wait for selection at the Ministry of Personnel.

It's easy to see that their political ceiling isn't high.

(End of this chapter)